Commonwealth v. Paton

The defendant appeals from judgments of conviction of armed assault with intent to murder and assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, contending that the trial judge erred in not instructing the jury, sua sponte, on self-defense and various lesser included offenses. The arguments are made for the first time on appeal. Upon our review of the record of the trial, we conclude that there was no error, let alone any substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice, and, therefore, we affirm the judgments.

We describe the evidence in some detail as the basis for our analysis of the…